Americans Favor Meeting with the Enemy

By Jon Cohen
John McCain this morning again took aim at Barack Obama, his likely Democratic opponent, over the Illinois senator's willingness to meet with Iranian leaders , and a new poll shows McCain also at odds with most Americans and nearly half of his own supporters on the matter.

Overall, nearly six in 10 in a new Gallup poll said it would be a "good idea" for the president to meet with the president of Iran, and more, two-thirds, thought the U.S. president should be open to talks with America's enemies more broadly.

Those who back Obama in a hypothetical general election match-up with McCain overwhelmingly (78 percent) favor the U.S. president talking to the Iranian president, as do 47 percent of those who would vote for McCain if the election were held today. Nearly two-thirds of those who back Hillary Clinton in her bid for the Democratic nomination said it would be a good idea to have talks at the highest level, as well.